


What I don't like

by AzraelGFG



Series: A Family Hound [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Daddy Sandor, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Daughter Talk, Fatherhood, First Relationship, Growing Up, PPM-Protective Papa Mode, Sandor trying to be a good father
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-02 14:00:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20277046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AzraelGFG/pseuds/AzraelGFG
Summary: Sandor and Sansa's daughter Serena brings home her first boyfriend and Sandor isn't the biggest fan of him. Protective Papa Mode activated.





	What I don't like

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a comment on r/askreddit a few years ago.

Sandor hated that boy. Well, hate was the wrong word. He just didn’t like him. He did either like him the day Serena had introduced him to him and Sansa nor now, two months later.

In the months after Serena’s menarche puberty had hit her with full force. Sandor could barely believe how his little girl had turned into a young woman that quick. Sansa had always told him it was just the magic of biology.

Serena had the beauty of her mother and with her getting womanly curves it hadn’t taken long until the first boys of her school had taken an interest in her.

Sansa had decided that that had been the right time for the _talk. _Sandor had started with the birds and the bees talk since he had read a lot of online articles on how to explain all of this to children. He never had the _talk_ himself really. His mother and father had died in a car crash alongside his brother and sister when he had been ten. Sandor had survived by some miracle, only having some scars from glass that had cut his face.

After he had recovered, he had spent the rest of his childhood at different foster families, who never bothered to explain anything to him when puberty had hit him.

He had to learn everything himself and looking back it had been a miracle that he hadn’t ended up as the father of a child before he finished school. He probably would have ended as alcoholic or murder at some point by the amount of rage he had inside him back in the days.

Everything had changed when the principle of his school, Mr. Elder Brother had taken him aside for a long talk one afternoon, after he had beat up some boys at school for bullying a shy girl, by pulling on her braids all the time.

It had reminded him too much of his brother Gregor harassing his sister Elynore. Sandor had been sure he would be expelled, but Mr. Elder Brother had told him he had potential if he could control the rage and hate for the world inside him and turn it into something good for himself.

Mr. Brother had been the first to ever believe he could become more in his life. From this day on Sandor had sat down and focused on school and when he had gotten his high school degree Elder Brother had even helped him to get into the engineering program of the university where he had ultimately met Sansa all those years ago when he had been her tutor in the calculus II class.

“Really?” had been the only question Sansa had asked with a smirk around her lips when he had started to talk about bees and birds.

Sansa had then taken over and explained everything to their daughter with the detail and coherence of a biologist. At times Sandor had been overwhelmed by all of the complexity, but Serena had the smart mind of her mother and so she could follow her mother’s explanations way easier than Sandor did.

A few months after the talk Serena had told them that she had started to date with a boy who was one class above her.

Sansa had been excited to hear that while Sandor had rather mixed feelings. He knew too good what boys at that age were after, but Sansa had told him they were just dating and not a couple.

Over the next few weeks, Sandor had often seen Serena basically being glued to their phone screen. She even had no interest in their usual father-daughter time when Sansa had to travel to a different city for a presentation.

Sandor had been hurt at first that his daughter didn’t want to spend that much time with him anymore, but he had just brushed it aside as a normal thing in puberty.

He had done the same when Serena’s teacher had called him and Sansa to tell them that their daughter had failed her math exam and a couple of other tests in the last couple of weeks.

Serena never failed any tests. She was always dedicated to pass all of them and maintain her good grades, so this news had been rather surprising, especially considering that Serena never kept any news, good or bad, from them.

While agreeing that it was uncommon behavior, he and Sansa agreed it was probably just a phase, due to puberty and now having less interest in school.

They were both sure Serena would soon be back to her usual grades.

Not soon after Serena told them she had a boyfriend and that he was the sweetest boy in school.

Sansa and Sandor had been excited to meet this boy. Well, Sansa had been excited; Sandor had been just curious.

When the day had then come when Serena would introduce them to her boyfriend, Sansa had told him he should not immediately scare away the boy and Sandor had really tried not to be intimidating, but when Serena had introduced him to Harlan, he had immediately known he didn’t like that boy.

His handshake was weak and he could hear the arrogance in his voice, just because his parents had been born rich, while he and Sansa had worked their way up.

But Sandor didn’t say anything since Serena seemed to be happy with him. Serena’s happiness was paramount to him and if she was fond of that boy with his blue eyes and sandy hair he would bite his tongue and accept it.

Sansa felt similar. She told Sandor she was kind of surprised because she would never have expected Serena to come home with someone who openly said that he didn’t care about school and that science classes were just something for nerds.

When Sandor saw his daughter kiss that boy for the first time, it had looked like the strangest thing for him.

In the month after Serena’s grades hadn’t turned great again and slowly but surely Sandor started to worry and Sansa felt the same. Serena was happy though. She often spent time at Harlan’s place after school and if they were here, they mostly watched TV in Serena’s room.

About a month ago, Sansa and Sandor had sat down with Serena and talked about her grades and that if she continued like this, she might have to repeat class next year. It seemed these words had the effect on Serena Sandor had hoped for. During the last few weeks, she had spent less time with Harlan and often stayed at home doing school work.

He and Sansa though had noticed how often Serena seemed to be sad and often angrily threw away her phone when she wrote with someone.

This week Sansa had to travel to the university of Lannisport and she would return on next Monday.

Sandor had picked up Serena from school as usual and had asked her how school was.

She had told him that exams had been announced and that she would spend the weekend studying for them.

Sandor had asked what Harlan was saying about it. He had spoken more to himself rather than directing the question to his daughter, but she answered nevertheless.

She told him he wasn’t exactly happy that she had so little time for him and that things had been difficult lately between them, but Sandor didn’t dig any further.

After they returned home Serena went to her room to do her homework and Sandor had some work left to do on his own. When he was done he knocked on Serena’s door and asked if he should make dinner.

Serena told him she was hungry and offered to help him, but Sandor declined.

He made lasagna and called for his daughter when it was ready. As they ate dinner Serena kept writing on her phone and Sandor noticed how she grew more frustrated with every message she sent.

“With whom are you writing?” Sandor asked pouring himself another glass of wine.

“Harlan…” she said with a sigh. “He wants to hang out tomorrow, but I need to learn and he seems to not understand that. We’ll talk later…”

After they were done, Sandor asked if she wanted to watch a movie with him, but she said she would rather continue learning so she had time for Harlan tomorrow.

When Serena was back at her room Sandor poured himself a glass of whisky and watched TV, casually chatting with Sansa via WhatsApp for most of the evening.

When he turned off the TV and walked pass his daughter’s room, he heard Serena talk with someone on her phone.

He knocked and he heard her stop, hanging up the call, before opening her door.

“Yes?” she asked.

“I just want to wish you a good night, I go to bed.”

“Okay, goodnight Papa,” she said and gave him a quick peck on his cheek.

“Is everything alright?” he asked because he felt something was off with his daughter.

“Yes, of course. See you tomorrow.”

“Okay, sleep well darling,” he said and Serena smiled at him even though it looked a little forced.

Sandor got ready for bed and when he got under the blanket, he thought he heard sobs through the wall of Serena’s wall.

For a moment he thought about going to Serena’s room, but he didn’t want her to feel like he was controlling her, so he decided he would ask her in the morning.

***

The next morning, he made breakfast as always when he was alone with Serena. When Serena joined him in the kitchen, he saw she had curled her hair today.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“Looks beautiful,” he said.

“Thanks,” she said smiling.

Today Serena’s mood seemed to be higher than yesterday so Sandor decided to not mention what he heard last night.

As he poured her another cup of tea, her phone buzzed.

“Ohh, Harlan will be here in a few minutes,” she said.

“Nice…” he said and tried his best to keep his annoyance out of his voice.

Only a few minutes later the doorbell rang and Serena opened.

Sandor didn’t bother to greet him, instead, he took another sip of his coffee, while he read the newspaper on his tablet.

“You like them?” he heard Serena ask, probably referring to her curls she had made.

“Not really,” Sandor heard as the answer and Sandor though what a fucking idiot that boy was.

Sandor heard some chatter from the hallway between them and the talk grew more annoyed between them within a few minutes.

“I can’t spend the whole day with you, I have exams,” his daughter said.

“You mean I came all the way here only to hear that you don’t have time for me? I don’t like that you spent so much time learning, instead of spending time with me…”

“You know what I don’t like?” Sandor asked from the kitchen in a growling voice, before he joined them at the door.

“You know what I don’t like?” he asked again and Harlan shrugged. This respectless gesture only made Sandor angrier.

“I don’t like that you pressure my daughter into spending time with you even if she obviously doesn’t want to spend time with you and I like even less that I hear her cry herself to sleep over you,” he said and opened the door. “And now get the fuck out.”

Harlan left without another word and Sandor turned to his daughter, who flung herself in his arms sobbing against his chest.

Sandor gently rubbed her back.

“Hey, hey, darling it's alright. Let it all out.”

“Ohh Papa,” she sobbed against him. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for what?” he asked.

“For doing what I should have done,” she whispered.

“Come, I make you a hot chocolate,” he said and went to the kitchen. “I didn’t get what you found in him in the first place.”

“He was nice to me,” she said and Sandor rolled his eyes as he prepared the sweet drink.

“Was he really?” he asked.

“Yes…he was the first boy to notice me. He told me how pretty I was and how much he liked me, but when I then agreed to be his girlfriend…”

“Then what?” Sandor asked.

“He said I was too smart and nobody liked girls who only got A’s, so I stopped to prepare for tests. I was so stupid to keep his attention that I risked my education.”

Sandor put down a cup of hot chocolate in front of her.

“Darling listen, I won’t tell you what to do or not do, but I feel you won’t be happy with Harlan. I have seen how unhappy you’ve been for the last months. I know how you like school and your grades. And I know how much you want to study and follow your mom’s path.”

“So you think I should break up with him?” she asked.

“That is something you need to decide, but you should think about what you want for yourself. Do you want somebody who wants you to hide your true intellect?”

“No…no I don’t think so…”

“And regarding being too smart…if he really thinks you too smart he is the stupidest boy out there. Look at your mother and me, we both met in university and yet she has a Phd., While I only got my master’s degree. Somewhere out there is a boy who will love for your intellect.”

“You think so?”

“Yes, of course, darling and your mom thinks the same way.”

“Okay,” she said and started to write on her phone before she put it down again. “I did it. I told him it’s over.”

“I can’t say I am not happy to hear that,” he said with a smirk.

“I know you don’t like him, but he was still my first in many ways,” Serena said.

“I hope you at least used protection,” Sandor said.

“Why should we have needed protec…” Serena said and then realized what Sandor had meant. “Ohh…ohh no…we never did anything of that sort. I am still a virgin. He was my first kiss though.”

“There is no need to rush to get into bed with someone. It’s better to wait for the right one,” he said. “Was he at least a good kisser?”

“Good enough I guess,” Serena said laughing.

“Good,” Sandor said and took a sip from his cup.

“You might want to do something today and watch a movie in the evening with pizza?” Serena asked. “I missed our father-daughter days.”

“I missed them too,” he said and couldn’t describe how relieved he was Serena came up with that idea. “Sure, we can do something. What would you like to do?”

“Would you go shopping in the city with me?” she asked.

“Really? Wouldn’t you rather like mom with you for shopping?” he asked.

“No, I want to go with the best father there is.”

“Alright, I’ll get my jacket then.”

“Yay,” Serena squealed and while Sandor got his jacket, keys and wallet he was happier than he had been in months.

Before they left their flat Sandor quickly wrote Sansa that Serena had broken up with Harlan and Sansa immediately answered with a ‘thank gods’.

The End.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment if you like :)


End file.
